Comments for al's placehttp://alsplace.info
a li'l of this and a li'l of thatFri, 05 Aug 2011 01:12:46 +0000hourly1Comment on How The New ‘Protecting Children’ Bill Puts You At Risk by alhttp://alsplace.info/?p=1268&cpage=1#comment-16
Fri, 05 Aug 2011 01:12:46 +0000http://alsplace.info/internet/1268/how-the-new-%e2%80%98protecting-children%e2%80%99-bill-puts-you-at-risk/#comment-16A Recent Mailing From the Electronic Frontier Foundation:

Reports indicate that networking giant Cisco Systems has been knowingly selling Internet surveillance and censorship tools to the Chinese government for years. These tools have enabled China to spy on its citizens, and may have been customized to target individuals who are working to protect human rights and build democracy in China.

The Chinese government reportedly detained and interrogated Du Daobin, a dissident writer, specifically about a lawsuit he and other Chinese dissidents brought against Cisco. In June 2011, the activists sued Cisco and a number of Cisco executives in the United States District Court in Maryland for their “knowing and willful aiding and abetting of the Chinese government’s harassment, arrest, and torture of Chinese political activists.”

As an activist, Mr. Du has already suffered at the hands of Chinese authorities. According to Mr. Du’s attorneys, “By the time of his release in 2010, Du was suffering from extreme malnutrition, cardiac issues, could no longer walk without assistance, and was dependent on a wheelchair.”

We believe that Mr. Du has been released by the Chinese government, but he faces the possibility of more imprisonment and torture for challenging an American company’s policies and speaking out against censorship.
Tell Cisco to intervene on behalf of Mr. Du and stand up for human rights.https://secure.eff.org/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=504

Thank you for standing up for digital freedoms,

Eva, Richard, and Rainey
EFF Activism Team
Please help support our work!

]]>Comment on Word — Keep your stinking hands off my styles! by alhttp://alsplace.info/?p=220&cpage=1#comment-14
Wed, 20 Feb 2008 09:42:55 +0000http://alsplace.aldenbaker.com/alsplace/microsoft/ms-office/ms-word/220/word-%e2%80%94-keep-your-stinking-hands-off-my-styles/#comment-14———————————————————–
Word can’t keep it’s hands off anyway…
One of the first changes I make to Word when I install it is to turn off the option to automatically define styles as you type and yet I keep finding that my Normal template styles keep getting redefined to match whatever template I use the most. For example, since I most often am typing manuscripts at home, I find that the Normal style in normal.dot has been redefined as double-spaced. When I create a “blank document” that’s what I get.

At first I thought it was my fault, that I had changed the styles before saving the template (thereby saving the style changes to Normal) but when I got my latest computer I deliberately created a template, saved it, and then made changes to the template. The styles in Normal were still changed.

Do you know of any way to avoid that problem?
Posted: 02/12/2008 @ 11:56 AM (PST)
Good question
I’ve done this by backing up, then altering the Normal template. Another way is to change which template is the default. Either way, I’ve never found a quick way to choose when starting a doc. Then again, I don’t use Word a whole lot. Back when I was writing help files, I aggressively customized the entire app, but I wasn’t using it for much else, so it didn’t matter.

I wouldn’t mind some pointers in this area myself.
Posted: 02/12/2008 @ 08:25 PM (PST)
Create a “base” style in your template(s).
I can’t take credit for this tip, it actually comes from reading my “(2003) Word Bible” (from QUE Publishing) … create a new base style, to replace Normal, in any customized template. Build all your customized styles on that base, which is slick, ‘cuz you can change the base (font, pt, etc.) and all the styles connected to the base change too! Another QUE tip, don’t alter the Normal.dot … create customized .dots (nothing’s worse that corrupting the MS-issued “default” template.)
Posted: 02/13/2008 @ 08:42 AM (PST)
Normal.dot update – tuurn it off
Don’t forget to turn off the option to automatically save changes to normal.dot when you save your document. That will also cause an unexpected change to the MS default, many times for the worse.
Posted: 02/18/2008 @ 06:26 AM (PST)
Random styles
I can NEVER get Word to retain my default font. I don’t like to use Times New Roman, I prefer Arial. No matter where I set that font as the default, when I open a new document, there’s that doggone Times New Roman again!

And what’s worse, if I DO set a font on the first paragraph of my document, I expect that font to remain in effect until I change it again but NOOOOOOOOO, I have to either re-set the font after I hit for the next paragraph, or I have to use to keep the formatting.

I really hate the, “There, there, dear, you couldn’t possibly know what’s best for your document as well as we do, so just let us do it and don’t worry your pretty little head over it.”

And don’t EVEN get me started on automatic hyperlinks!!!!
Posted: 02/18/2008 @ 09:03 AM (PST)
changing font in the entire document
If you press Ctrl+A before selecting Arial the change will apply to every part of the document, including the next paragraph that doesn’t exist yet.
Posted: 02/18/2008 @ 09:17 PM (PST)
Actually, I’ve tried that…
Sometimes it works, but just as often when I hit it goes back to Times New Roman. I know where/how to set the default font for all docs, just sometimes Word ignores the setting.

Besides, I don’t ALWAYS want everything to be Arial – sometimes I like my heading text, or list text, or some other text I want to bring attention to, to be a different font.

Sadly, there isn’t usually a one-size-fits all solution.
Posted: 02/19/2008 @ 08:41 AM (PST)
Easy Way To Fix That!
Write protect normal.dot so Word cannot make these changes. If you want to make changes, unwrite protect just for your changes. This is the way we stopped macro viruses before the advent of anti-virus software back in the stone ages.

]]>Comment on Get quick help with your Access forms with ToolTips by alhttp://alsplace.info/?p=219&cpage=1#comment-13
Wed, 20 Feb 2008 09:42:01 +0000http://alsplace.aldenbaker.com/alsplace/microsoft/ms-office/ms-access/219/get-quick-help-with-your-access-forms-with-tooltips/#comment-13———————————————————–
Word can’t keep it’s hands off anyway…
One of the first changes I make to Word when I install it is to turn off the option to automatically define styles as you type and yet I keep finding that my Normal template styles keep getting redefined to match whatever template I use the most. For example, since I most often am typing manuscripts at home, I find that the Normal style in normal.dot has been redefined as double-spaced. When I create a “blank document” that’s what I get.

At first I thought it was my fault, that I had changed the styles before saving the template (thereby saving the style changes to Normal) but when I got my latest computer I deliberately created a template, saved it, and then made changes to the template. The styles in Normal were still changed.

Do you know of any way to avoid that problem?
Posted: 02/12/2008 @ 11:56 AM (PST)
Good question
I’ve done this by backing up, then altering the Normal template. Another way is to change which template is the default. Either way, I’ve never found a quick way to choose when starting a doc. Then again, I don’t use Word a whole lot. Back when I was writing help files, I aggressively customized the entire app, but I wasn’t using it for much else, so it didn’t matter.

I wouldn’t mind some pointers in this area myself.
Posted: 02/12/2008 @ 08:25 PM (PST)
Create a “base” style in your template(s).
I can’t take credit for this tip, it actually comes from reading my “(2003) Word Bible” (from QUE Publishing) … create a new base style, to replace Normal, in any customized template. Build all your customized styles on that base, which is slick, ‘cuz you can change the base (font, pt, etc.) and all the styles connected to the base change too! Another QUE tip, don’t alter the Normal.dot … create customized .dots (nothing’s worse that corrupting the MS-issued “default” template.)
Posted: 02/13/2008 @ 08:42 AM (PST)
Normal.dot update – tuurn it off
Don’t forget to turn off the option to automatically save changes to normal.dot when you save your document. That will also cause an unexpected change to the MS default, many times for the worse.
Posted: 02/18/2008 @ 06:26 AM (PST)
Random styles
I can NEVER get Word to retain my default font. I don’t like to use Times New Roman, I prefer Arial. No matter where I set that font as the default, when I open a new document, there’s that doggone Times New Roman again!

And what’s worse, if I DO set a font on the first paragraph of my document, I expect that font to remain in effect until I change it again but NOOOOOOOOO, I have to either re-set the font after I hit for the next paragraph, or I have to use to keep the formatting.

I really hate the, “There, there, dear, you couldn’t possibly know what’s best for your document as well as we do, so just let us do it and don’t worry your pretty little head over it.”

And don’t EVEN get me started on automatic hyperlinks!!!!
Posted: 02/18/2008 @ 09:03 AM (PST)
changing font in the entire document
If you press Ctrl+A before selecting Arial the change will apply to every part of the document, including the next paragraph that doesn’t exist yet.
Posted: 02/18/2008 @ 09:17 PM (PST)
Actually, I’ve tried that…
Sometimes it works, but just as often when I hit it goes back to Times New Roman. I know where/how to set the default font for all docs, just sometimes Word ignores the setting.

Besides, I don’t ALWAYS want everything to be Arial – sometimes I like my heading text, or list text, or some other text I want to bring attention to, to be a different font.

Sadly, there isn’t usually a one-size-fits all solution.
Posted: 02/19/2008 @ 08:41 AM (PST)
Easy Way To Fix That!
Write protect normal.dot so Word cannot make these changes. If you want to make changes, unwrite protect just for your changes. This is the way we stopped macro viruses before the advent of anti-virus software back in the stone ages.

]]>Comment on Rainlendar by alhttp://alsplace.info/?p=184&cpage=1#comment-11
Thu, 17 Jan 2008 13:15:12 +0000http://alsplace.aldenbaker.com/alsplace/software/184/rainlendar/#comment-11In the pay-for version, Rainlender will attach to Outlook calendar events. I use it and am quite pleased with this software.
]]>Comment on How do I… Install Windows Vista in a dual-boot configuration along with Windows XP? by alhttp://alsplace.info/?p=182&cpage=1#comment-10
Thu, 17 Jan 2008 12:23:38 +0000http://alsplace.aldenbaker.com/alsplace/opsys/os-vista/182/how-do-i-install-windows-vista-in-a-dual-boot-configuration-along-with-windows-xp/#comment-10How do I… Install Windows Vista in a dual-boot configuration along with Windows XP?steve.brunt@… – 02/08/07
Please read the original article.

Reply 1. Keep references to the two disks separate steve.brunt@… – 02/08/07
If you have the two disk scenario with say XP on the first and Vista on the second then it’s been my experience that you’ll end up with booting of the Vista disk dependent upon the presence of the first. (I am an old mainframe guy, not a Windows guru, but I believe that the boot.ini file and ntldr.exe etc stay on the first disk) So if you have a bios that allows you to choose which disk to boot from, you can set up the second (Vista) disk separately and have no interdependencies. You may have to disable the first disk while you do the clean install of Vista otherwise it will try to setup a multiboot system anyway.

Reply 1.1. Dual Boot With a clean Vista installation whoozhe@… – 02/08/07
I read from WindowsSecrets site that Vista upgrade can only be installed from an existing installation of XP, 2000 or Vista. The article also says that the previous installation does not have to be activated so by installing Vista without the key then reinstalling Vista as an upgrade over the “trial” installation will work. This method is hard coded in Vista so is legal. My question is can this method be applied to a dual boot system. The article I refer to is at http://www.windowssecrets.com/comp/070201#story1

Reply 1.1.1. It works technonaut – 02/19/07
This method works, I just did this last night. The “upgrade” failed the first time around but worked the second time. Why, I do not know. My question is, I would like to keep the dual boot for several reasons, but would like the boot loader information which currently resides on partition 0 XP to be moved to partition 1 Vista so I can specify disk 1 in my motherboards bios as the first boot disk. Currently, if I choose disk 1, which holds the Vista install a message appears that the ntldr is missing. Any assistance will be much appreciated.

Reply 1.1.1.1. boot error solr_07666@… – 02/19/07
you need to edit the boot.ini file on disk1 to point to the vista installation. If you make all your system files visible, you will see boot.ini on the C: drive (disk 0). You need to edit this for Vista and copy it to the vista drive.

Reply 1.1.1.1.1. Dual Boot d.arbib@… – 02/19/07
Of course I would have done so! But as neither drive booted up to installing any OS so obviously could not access boot.ini I was able to get primary drive open is safe mode but it is not possible to modify boot.ini or anything else therein. I did try to find a way in CMD to change boot.ini but I lost my way and could not get any help.

Reply 1.1.1.1.1.1. boot ini keithboorman@… – 03/27/07
Vista dosent use boot.ini anymore they have new system. But you can overcome your problem by installing VistabootPro 3.10 from there you can make the right boot file, it does it for you.

Reply 1.1.1.1.2. Dual Boot – Changing Configuration technonaut – 02/20/07
Since Windows Vista no longer uses the boot.ini file, I was thinking the answer to this might be a little more complicated and involve editing the BCD file. Again, any assistance is appreciated.

Reply 1.1.1.1.2.1. Just change the order Greg Shultz – 02/20/07
If you want Vista to boot up be default, all you have to do is access the the Startup and Recovery dialog box as shown in Figure L in the article. You won’t be able to move the boot loader information from partition 0 to partition 1.
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1.1.1.1.2.1.1. Other Alternatives? technonaut – 02/20/07
Thanks Greg for your quick response, I do have the Vista install as the default boot, I just do not like having the boot loader information on what is in this instance an older, slower hard drive where XP resides. You answered my question, apparently the boot loader is not movable between partitions. Any other alternatives or ways to have a dual boot system with Vista / XP in which I can control which partition the boot loader information is stored? The method you set forth works flawlessly, I just want to have more contol of what OS resides on what partition, or in this case disk, and where the boot loader information is stored.
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1.1.1.1.2.1.2. Alternatives? technonaut – 03/01/07
Anybody have any thoughts? (Besides running one OS in a VM)

Reply 1.1.1.1.3. Dual boot d.arbib@… – 03/26/07
Of course. But trying to change boot.ini default was not allowed and both 32 bit and 64 bit were, in BIOS setup, both default and neither would open. Partially solved by installing 64 bit Vista first then 32 bit XPpro/SP2 on slave drive. One of the problems is that there are still very few 64 bit compatible programs. Does anyone know of a source detailing which are 64 bit compatible.

Reply 1.1.2. Partition from Vista d.oltmann@… – 04/16/07
Don’t mean to seem dumb but can one set the new partition in Vista then recover XP and reinstall Vista to the new partition without wiping it out? (Vista express upgrade) Dave

Reply 1.2. Keep references to the two disks separate Bill the Senior Tech – 02/09/07
Exactly the best way to go, and if you are discovering SW titles with any discovery tools, you should disable access to the Vista Drive/Partition, so that Software discoveries are not utilized where they are not warranted

Reply 1.3. Too Difficult Net_Tech@… – 02/09/07
Why not install Virtual PC and run it that way? I found no problems or errors in the install and the function of the OS. Seems to get around all the “dual boot” scenarios.

Reply 1.4. Use the BIOS to choose iusethisaddresstocollectspam@… – 02/12/07
Since a Vista machine has to be modern it is very likely that you can choose in the BIOS which hard drive to boot from. I think that would be easier than dual boot – providing you are using separate hard disk. Dual boot always seems to end up a pain in the butt – while I haven’t tried it with Vista I have with other MS products and Linux – I wouldn’t recommened it.

Reply 1.5. Editing the BCD File Greg Shultz – 02/12/07
A reader sent this comment to me and I thought that I would share the question and the answer: Q) In the old BOOT.INI file for WXP and W2K, I could modify the title string to display what I want to select a bootable O/S in the boot menu. In your article titled “How do I… Install Windows Vista in a dual-boot configuration along with Windows XP?”, I don’t see how to change “Earlier version of windows” string in Vista’s Boot Manager to say something more applicable like “Windows XP” or “Windows 2K” in a multiboot configuration. I found this to be a problem during my testing of Vista beta releases and haven’t found the answer. Maybe you can shed some light on how I can modify these Boot Manager strings? A) Windows Vista no longer uses the Boot.ini file. That file and the old underlying boot system has been replaced by a new boot loader/bootmgr, which reads boot configuration data from a special file named BCD. A brand new tool called Bcdedit.exe (Boot Configuration data Store Editor) can be used to make more in-depth changes to the contents of the BCD. Keep in mind that Bcdedit.exe is a command line tool that operates solely via switches and as such, is a bit cryptic. To run the command from within Vista: 1. Right click on the Command Prompt shortcut and slect the Run As Administrator command 2. Type the following command: bcdedit /set {legacy} Description “Windows XP” The text inside the quotes can be anything that you want to replace the “Earlier version of windows” string in Vista’s Boot Manager.

Reply 1.6. Dual boot vista and linux vista installed first. normhaga@… – 05/01/07
My laptop came with Vista Ultimate x64 pre-installed. After working with Vista a while, I found that I did not care for Vista. I split the partition and installed Linux on the second partition. The dual boot was a hassle. This is what I finally did: 1. Installed grub in the root partition of the Linux install. 2. Down loaded a copy of “dd for windows” and copied the first 512 bytes of the linux root partition to a file called “Linux.BOOT”, which I placed in the root partition of the Vista install. (If you feel macho you can do this with a hex editor) 3. opened an administrative command window and: typed bcdedit /enum (list boots) typed bcdedit /create “Linux” (create the registry entry) typed bcdedit and listed the UID of the new Linux entry typed bcdedit /set {new Linux UID number} device=boot typed bcdedit /set {new Linux UID number} path Linux.BOOT Viola, dual boot Vista an Linux with Vista’s boot manager. This can be done with XP or whatever. With XP, you do not have to copy the first 512 bytes of the XP boot sector, just point bcdedit to (I think) NTLDR. Ruk folks.

Reply 2. Dual Boot Hell rowengal@… – 02/09/07
I did a dual boot and found a serious issue that I have not been able to resolve. If I boot to XP with Vista installed in 2nd partition, then boot back to Vista, all restore points in Vista are errased. Hiding the Vista partiton from XP using TweakUI did not help. Sure could use a suggestion to resolve this. On a good note, I also found that if you can’t find Vista drivers for some devices, you can use XP drivers as long as they are digitally signed. Got my web cam working that way.

Reply 3. dual boot Windows 95 and Windows NT shraven – 02/09/07
Other than your gyrations with the Windows activation nonsense, what’s new with your article? This is the same process it’s always been.

Reply 4. Changes in Windows Vista Dual Boot. ugh138@… – 02/09/07
When you install Vista in a dual boot environment it will claim the partition that you are installing to as the primary partition. Vista has done away with boot.ini file and forces you to use the Windows Boot Manager to select your partition. If you configure the Boot Manager to use XP as the Default Operating system, your computer will revert back to using the Boot.ini for XP on load which does not have entries for the Vista Partition. You will either have to add it manually to the XP boot.ini file or use the command line tool bcdedit.exe on your vista partition to revert the default OS back to Vista.

Reply 4.1. Not really…. cleaverx@… – 02/12/07
I have used bcdedit to set windows XP as the default with a 5 second delay, and that gives me plenty of time to pick either os for booting from the new boot manager. I have a 250Gb Seagate, with three partitions; XP and Vista occupy the 1st and 3rd, with the middle partition being used for data only.

Reply 4.2. Vista 64 bit problem d.arbib@… – 02/14/07
In a dual HDD system I had a 32 bit XPpro.SP2/IE7 system on primary drive and installed 64 bit Vista on secondary drive (and updated it) but then on re-booting both drives were identified as default and trying to open either I got “ntdlr” corrupted. I could open primary drive in “Safe Mode” but could not change boot.ini. Ultimately I gave up and had to re-install from scratch. Micosoft, in their wisdom, suggested installing 64 bit Vists first and 32 bit XPpro on secondary drive. Haven’t dared do this yet and I wonder if anyone has experience of this.

Reply 4.2.1. Tried it….and failed sirrand@… – 02/18/07
I’ve got the Vista 64-bit Ultimate edition (retail) loaded. It runs great, even with 2 8800gtx’s in SLI. I tried loading XP on my second hard drive after getting Vista all configured and after XP finished loading the files and rebooting I got “disk read error occurred Press ctrl+alt+del”. I figured out that this action corrupted my Vista partition, but luckily after booting with my Vista disk I repaired it and booted again safely into Vista. Have not tried this again.

Reply 4.2.2. x64 first works wcpierce1@… – 02/23/07
I have a system very similar to yours with dual HDs and XPHome installed. I tried to upgrade to Vista x64 from an OEM DVD but couldn’t because the file system on my HD was Fat32. So, I booted Vista from the DVD and did a clean install on my secondary HD. Once Vista was up and running I formated the primary HD in NTFS, this of course removed my XPHome installation. I then shut down the computer opened the case and PHYSICALLY disabled the HD that now has Vista x64 on it. I rebooted from my DVD multi drive with the XPHome CD in it and reinstalled on the now reformatted HD. Once XPHome was installed and updated I then shut down the computer, reconnected the HD with Vista on it and changed the HD with XP on it to slave and the HD with Vista as the master. These HDs are on the primary IDE controler and the DVD multi drive is on the secondary controler by itself. Now when I boot the computer Vista will boot automatically and if I need to use XP I just hit F8 at the BIOS screen and boot from the other HD. For some reason Vista doesn’t “see” the other HD at all. It’s as if it wasn’t connected to the computer at all. I don’t know if this is a result of the method I used to install or not, but it works out because there are no conflicts between the two HDs.

Reply 4.2.2.1. x64 same issue PDFITZG1974@… – 05/01/07
I had same problem and was using same solution but thought my drive had gone bad when Vista didn’t detect it and I never did the F8 thing (there was a SMART error on the drive too, so when it didn’t show up in Vista, I thought it had died). Thanks for the post.

Reply 4.2.2.2. Dual Boot XP and Vista d.arbib@… – 05/01/07
I see in this chain the problems of dual booting XP and Vista and I have sort of given up, Reading the above of physically disconnecting drives, I have chosen to re-build a computer with updated components and plug-in hard drives which will, of course, be similar to disconnecting one or other in the hope that if I install XP on one drive and Vista on another it will work OK. We live to have problems to solve!

Reply 4.3. Dual Boot hell d.arbib@… – 07/03/07
After real struggles with trying to Dual boot 32 bit XP abd 64 bit Ultimate, I gave up and now have re-configured my PC to accept plug-in drives. I use XP with its programs for general use. Turn computer off and remove XP and “play” with Ultimate trying to find programs that are compatible. Ha, Ha!

Reply 5. partition with GPARTED spam@… – 02/09/07
Hi, I have a dual boot of windows XP and windows Vista Business running happily on the same machine. Quite easy to do. 1 – partition your drives with gparted (why? well, because it’s free! http://gparted.sourceforge.net/). Make sure the partitions are both master partitions. 2 – install xp on one partition 3 – install vista on another partition voila.

Reply 5.1. and how to remove puntim – 02/09/07
Vista and its boot manager should you decide to reclaim its space? I got rid of Vista with a reformat but am left with its boot manager. Any ideas on getting rid of the latter?

Reply 5.1.1. old scool fixit@… – 02/12/07
to remove any boot loader boot a win98se floppy or CD and get a dos prompt then do: fdisk /mbr Done!

Reply 5.1.1.1. thanks for the suggestion puntim – 02/12/07
but I have already tried doing this from the XP instal cd in repair mode with no result. Will have another go using a usb stick formatted as a win98 boot disk regards

Reply 5.1.1.1.1.1. hmm.. . fixit@… – 03/02/07
You know its strange to me, but it never even entered my mind to use the XP CD recovery console. When I want to be rid of an old OS i use the old familiar tools because they boot quick. Windows98 CD boots fast and the commands are very familiar. J
Maximum Level Reached

5.1.1.1.1.1.1. I use Dumphrey – 03/26/07
the norton ghost 2003 cd for the same reason. GDisk is very much like fdisk but can read and write ntfs and ext2/3 partitions as well. Boots in 35 sec as opposed to the 1 min + for XP recovery console. I use to use a 98 boot floppy, but I do not have floppy drives any more, and one machine will not boot off a USB stick. Though it would be sweet to have a 98 boot disk on a USB key.
Maximum Level Reached

5.1.1.1.1.1.2. Recovery console on Vista CD jbanks@… – 03/26/07
I ran into this problem and used the “Boot sector restoration tool” through the recovery console booting from my Vista install disk. You can access the recovery console through one of the repair options on the Vista disk Assuming your Vista DVD is on drive E and XP is on drive C, open the recovery console command prompt and type: E:boot\bootsect.exe /nt52 C: If it doesn’t work because access is denied and it can’t be unmounted. If this is the case, type: E:boot\bootsect.exe /nt52 C: /force It isn’t recommended to use the /force switch unless you have to. If your system was doing a write operation at the time it could cause an error on one of your files. I found this solution on a message board when my system was rendered unbootable when Vista had a issue.I’d give credit to the site if I could remember! This got me back to the XP bootloader and into XP. Handle with care…Vista doesn’t seem to disappear very clean.

Reply 5.1.1.1.1.2. Thanks for all suggestions puntim – 04/01/07
But after working through them as they came in, the one that worked for me was that by JBanks a couple of posts down. Could not put this post as a reply due to the forum limit But thanks again

Reply 5.1.1.1.2. Why NOt use “G_disc” ian.men@… – 12/31/07
Gdisk will remove any and all partitions on any HDD but be carefull you could loose All reading the help file is a must.Gdisk is part of Norton Ghost distro’s and is also on Hire’s Boot & Maintainence cd,very very handy.

Reply 5.2. I agree mark.broadnax@… – 10/05/07
I did the same thing, using gparted. Worked just fine. The best way to dual boot Vista and XP is to install XP first. When you are ready to install Vista, boot off the Vista CD. This way the install will find the available partition with no problem. Also, doing it this way will make either partition the C:\ drive. That is, whether you boot into XP or Vista the partition containing the OS you are booting off will be seen as C:\, which will allieviate problems with applications that insist on installing on that drive

Reply 6. And what about Linux? mroseberry@… – 02/12/07
I absolutely will not install the express upgrade to Vista Business on my laptop unless I can dual boot Vista and XP but I would love to be able to multi-boot Vista, XP, and Linux on on my laptop. Does anyone know if Vista, XP, and Linux can be setup to do a multi-boot from the same hard drive? If so, how can it be done?

Reply 6.1. Multi-Boot…… JCitizen – 02/12/07
I am sure other experts on this thread will probably give better advice; but I had no problem multibooting using the regular intall routine of any Windows operating system. It was only necessary to install the oldest OS first in the primary partition and in ascending order from there. Just pick the correct partition to install to during the pre-install dialog. I saved my Linux OS for last and used the instructions for multi-booting from the booklet that came with the disc set. It all seemed very intuitive and was easily done from beginning to end. I formated FAT 16 for ’98, and NTFS for all the rest of the Windows partitions; – then whatever New File System for the particular distro of Linux used.

Reply 6.1.1. What if Linux is already there? don.martin@… – 02/14/07
I’ve been wondering about this too. I already have DOS, Win2k and a couple of Linices and I’d rather not reinstall /everything/ just to get Vista on. I’m thinking I could just install each Linux over the top of its current install and would hope that it won’t overwrite all my customisations? Does anyone have any experience at this?

Reply 6.1.1.1. On Previous installations… JCitizen – 02/14/07
Sorry I don’t have enough Linux experience in that area; so I can’t help you there. You can only have four primary partitions per hard disk – the rules say you can’t run an operating system on logical drive partitions but I ran XP on one for 3 years, until I started messing with the allocation tables and then it blew up of course. Other wise you could run more that way. I have used Partition Magic to copy partitions and mirror one partition to another, it is very powerfull and has worked swimmingly; but I have found the new versions are poorly written like all of Symantecs other software, so is consequently unstable. Make sure the base formatting was done by the original disc manufacturers software or risk losing all data. Hard drives are getting cheap; looks like it is time for you to buy another one.

Reply 6.1.1.2. Install Vista First hassan_125_9@… – 02/15/07
Install Vista first and then install Linux. They both’ll work fine.

Reply 7. Triple Boot JollyRgr – 02/12/07
The dual boot option appears to be a viable solution, I’ve use it many times in the past. I’m currently building a new test system and was looking to set up an XP Pro 32bit/Vista 32bit/Vista 64 bit option. Are there any complications that you are aware of when installing the 64bit version I should be on the look out for?

Reply 8. Partitions must be Primary not Logical pianoguy@… – 02/14/07
My two hitches when doing this were: 1. I had used PM to create partitions of my new 200GB drive and it recommended “logical” partitions (I created two). But in Vista setup it didn’t see them, so I went back to PM and changed them to Primary, and then Vista setup worked. 2. I also couldn’t get the DVD to boot, no matter what I did with the boot order. THEN a friend suggested to make the DVD drive a primary not slave. Voila! Did it. FYI: I’m going to try to triple-boot, with two versions of Vista each on primary partitions of my main HD (I use a second HD for all data storage), plus XP. I’ve never done more than a double, and never tried even that with essentially the same OS. I need a separate test environment for Vista+Office’07 (in case you wondered). Thoughts anyone?

Reply 9. Multiversion don.martin@… – 02/14/07
The article implies that the one DVD contains all Vista versions, and that the serial no. will dictate which parts of the disk gets installed to the HDD. Is that caorrect? Can I install Ultimate to play with, then install Home later on when I want to register? Also, does anyone know whether the install DVD contains 32-bit and 64-bit versions, or do they come on separate DVDs?

Reply 9.1. Yes Greg Shultz – 02/14/07
Yes, the Windows Vista DVD’s will contain multiple versions of the operating system in order to facilitate the Anytime Upgrade feature. Yes, if the DVD has multiple versions, you can install any of the versions on the DVD for a free 30-Day trial. You must then reformat and then reinstall the version that you purchased. You can then activate it. The 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Vista come on separate DVDs.

Reply 9.1.1. Thank you don.martin@… – 02/14/07
Excellent answer.

Reply 9.1.2. Accessing both partitions steve@… – 02/26/07
Can the Vista partition access files on the XP partition, and vice versa, doing this or are the partitions totally independent and invisible to each other?

Reply 10. Why 2 Windows Vista choices on boot screen j’s – 02/16/07
I created the partition and followed the instructions for the install. My boot screen has 2 choices for Vista. The correct one is already highlighted, the 2nd gives an error of” Windows failed to start…File: \windows\system32\winload.exe… I don’t need this 2nd selection. How can I get rid of it?

Reply 11. Other solution Neon Samurai – 03/01/07
Run winXP in a VMware virtual machine. This works great for everything except Games where the drivers need direct access to hardware. Previously I was a fan of the removable drive boxes back when I was running Dos, win98, winNT on the family computer but on my own drive to keep my fiddling from breaking the usable shared OS isntall. These days though; VMware that bad boy.

Reply 12. Vista rearranges drives and takes over “Program Files” william_selph@… – 04/16/07
Here is my starting system: disk1: “C” XP with basic SW in “Program Files”; disk2: “D” no-OS with additional SW in “Program Files”; installed Vista upgrade to disk2. with Vista installed here is what happened. disk2: “C” Vista with basic SW in “Program Files”; XP applications erased; glad I had a backup; disk1: “D” XP untouched and dual-boot works. So i had to move the disk2 “Progarm Files” in place; boot XP and uninstall each application; then re-install into disk1 so OS will truely be separate.

Reply 12.1. Dual boot d.arbib@… – 05/01/07
Finally gave up trying to use 32 bit XPpro/SP2 on one drive and Vista Ultimate 64 bit on the other Wouldn,t work properly whichever was first installed I am now re-building an AMD 6000+ computer with front plug-in hard drive caddies and hope that I can plug in one or other OS, be it Vista, XP or Linux Has anybody had experience of this procedure?

Reply 12.1.1. Yes Dumphrey – 05/01/07
though the caddies I used were pretty cheap and woujld not allow another device on the same bus as the caddy. Over all, its a very nice way to go for multiple OS. No risk of other OS corruption, no hasell with boot loaders, and a second (or third) hard drive can be set up as a fixed disk to use as a swap disk between OS’s.

Reply 13. RE: How do I… Install Windows Vist mark.aziere@… – 06/21/07
I have installed Vista using the Seperate disk method, however, it does not give me the dual boot option; Shouldn’t it have written to the Boot.ini file already? Can this be done manually, and if so, which OS’s Boot.ini should I add the line to? Any other suggestions?

Reply 14. RE: How do I… Install Windows Vista in a dual-boot configuration along with Windows XP? manojdxb2002@… – 06/24/07
I was having dual operating system with vista and XP now i am not able to get access on XP please help me my Email Id is manojdxb2002@hotmail.com Thanks

Reply 15. RE: How do I… Install Windows Vista in a dual-boot configuration along with Windows XP? DaveHoniker – 07/02/07
what about the reverse way first Vista then XP. My new laptop came with vista and i want to install xp and use dual boot.

Reply 15.1. XP after Vista emerem2tor@… – 12/31/07
This is what I did: I installed XP on D: drive on the same HDD (Vista is on C: drive). Now I got XP working, but not Vista! I’m trying to figure it out how can I have both of them…

Reply 16. RE: How do I… Install Windows Vista in a dual-boot configuration along with Windows XP? jimdeese@… – 07/31/07
can I install xp on a system that already has vista installed ?

Reply 17. RE: How do I… Install Windows Vista in a dual-boot configuration along wi psycho_550@… – 10/01/07
Can this work with an raid 0 setup with two 150gb raptors?

Reply 18. RE: How do I… Install Windows Vista in a dual-boot configuration along with Windows XP? chris092070@… – 12/20/07
the best way to do this isuse the bios to change boot order,and either disable or enable boot other device option…..its so simple it sounds difficultyou install vista on 1 harddrive and xp on the other.then you set boot order depending on operating system desired,if you have vista on master ide 1,and xp on slave ide 1,and you want to boot vista and be able to access xp while booted to vista,access to xp for using files from it,then boot order in bios would be like this….. floppy hdd 1 cdrom boot other devices…yes(or enabled) THIS gives you access to xp harddrive in “my computer” if you want to boot to xp install and have access to files in vista ,then you change bios settings like this floppy hdd 2 cdrom boot other devices…yes(or enabled) now you have access to files in vista as the harddrive will be visable in “my computer” besides why would you want 2 partitions on a single harddrive anyways,what if the hard drive crashes and is unusable,a second partition on a single harddrive is putting all your restoration back up,drivers,files,and soforth at risk of being lost.use a second harddrive formatted for storage,or run a harddrive with vista,and one with xp and have copies of important files on both,hell even use a usb hard drive as a third storage drive.this is the way i roll,and i have never said “i lost everything when my harddrive crashed” but,this kind of configuration is hard to do on a raid system,but i dont like raid anyways,to much of a headache when you are trying to “perform miracles” and keep it simple oh i give lessons on wendsdays>>>>>>>

Reply 19. RE: How do I… Install Windows Vista in a dual-boot configuration along with Windows XP? chris092070@… – 12/20/07
the best way to do this isuse the bios to change boot order,and either disable or enable boot other device option…..its so simple it sounds difficultyou install vista on 1 harddrive and xp on the other.then you set boot order depending on operating system desired,if you have vista on master ide 1,and xp on slave ide 1,and you want to boot vista and be able to access xp while booted to vista,access to xp for using files from it,then boot order in bios would be like this….. floppy hdd 1 cdrom boot other devices…yes(or enabled)or disabled i cant remember THIS gives you access to xp harddrive in “my computer” if you want to boot to xp install and have access to files in vista ,then you change bios settings like this floppy hdd 2 cdrom boot other devices…yes(or enabled) or disabled now you have access to files in vista as the harddrive will be visable in “my computer” besides why would you want 2 partitions on a single harddrive anyways,what if the hard drive crashes and is unusable,a second partition on a single harddrive is putting all your restoration back up,drivers,files,and soforth at risk of being lost.use a second harddrive formatted for storage,or run a harddrive with vista,and one with xp and have copies of important files on both,hell even use a usb hard drive as a third storage drive.this is the way i roll,and i have never said “i lost everything when my harddrive crashed” but,this kind of configuration is hard to do on a raid system,but i dont like raid anyways,to much of a headache when you are trying to “perform miracles” and keep it simple oh i give lessons on wendsdays>>>>>>>

Reply 19.1. Dual Boot danielarbib – 12/21/07
I am not trying to partition my drive with two operating systems, I have two physically indepedent drives “C” and “D” both of which are accsesible in boot up process. This works fine with two identical XPpro/SP2 setups, but when I wiped to raw state my “D” drive and install Vista Ultimate 32 bit, then I found that neither drive would open normally

Reply 20. RE: How do I… Install Windows Vista in a dual-boot configuration along with Windows XP? cutestpilot@… – 12/31/07
i need to do the opposite cause am sort of sick from Vista atthe same time i would like to keep it atmy computer so how can i do so?? Thanks alot

Reply 20.1. Dual Boot XP and Vista danielarbib – 01/01/08
Finally, as I said, in another reply, I gave up and built a system with a plug-in/caddy hard drive option. Now all I do is to shut down and remove one drive with, say Vista 64 bit Ultimate and insert my trusty XPpro 32 bit which then boots normally. Dual booting from BIOS has been a nightmare.

Reply 1. Walk-through: Creating a bootable USB flash drive for Windows XP JodyGilbert – 02/16/07
How does this method stack up against other techniques you’ve used to create a bootable UFD? Have you had success taking this approach?

Reply 1.1. If yuo don’t want WinXP on a USB stick, try Slax A_Selby – 02/19/07
You can also put your own customized Live Linux on a USB flash memory device too. Just visit slax.org and you can download a live Linux creation tool that will run on Windows and allows you to add loads of modules (such as ethereal, Firefox, the gimp, open office etc.) to customize your own live “CD”. You can create an ISO for burning onto CDs or USB drives – whatever you prefer. From there, it’s the same as described in the article: select the USB device in the BIOS or if it doesn’t appear in the bootable devices list, plug it in and try again to see it appears in the list then. I discovered Slax after I’d spent three straight days slaving away trying to manually build a live Linux distro. The results from using Slax made a mockery of my own manual (and laborious) efforts.

Reply 1.1.1. outstanding SLAX or KNOPPIX on USB pendrive helder.velez@… – 02/22/07
outstanding the simplicity of SLAX or KNOPPIX, download and try from http://www.pendrivelinux.com if you can have better stuff, why use microsoft ?

Reply 1.1.1.1. Because the “better stuff” has a hard time with NTFS ajb9794@… – 04/24/07
Linux has a few issues with NTFS volumes, and in my case, I want to use this drive to rescue windows pc’s on my network. Since most XP installations are NTFS and with all of the linux solutions taking a duct tape approach to the NTFS read/write issue – it stands to reason that a windows based usb boot drive is a better option. Not to mention, much easier to implement. Not all of us are able – or even have the desire to waste hours tinkering with the linux command line.

Reply 1.1.1.1.1. I’ve not had trouble with the more recent bootable live linux cds A_Selby – 04/30/07
Older ones, sure – I tried a portable mandrake that sucked, but since Knoppix 3+ I’ve had no trouble. Slax ditto.

Reply 1.1.1.1.2. Gnome! tnt4748@… – 05/24/07
Thats what GNOME is for

Reply 1.1.2. DSL makes USB bootable! linuxiac – 02/22/07
Grab Damn Small Linux, 49Mb of it, and burn, then boot the CDrom. http://pendrivelinux.com/2007/01/02/all-in-one-usb-dsl Insert a USB stick into a USB port. On a blank bit of screen, right click, Menu apears. Go down to the Utilities menu, left click, A sub-menu apears, select the entry for the boot USB and note there are two ways, USB ZIP device (for the older boxes), and USB-HDD (newer BIOS since ~1999)!

Reply 1.2. About time AAWW – 02/21/07
Booting from a USB Flash Drive is a great way to diagnose PC problems, I’ve been using Linux for this purpose (which works great), but it’s good to know that we now have a way to do it in Windows!

Reply 1.3. My OEM CD dosn’t work keith@… – 02/22/07
I only have an OEM copy of windows. It says there can be problems and there right. It says at the end that there are 4 files missing. I tried it without them but the boot failed. I then found the files on my system and copied them to a directory and told the program to include this directory but it still says it can’t find the files.

Reply 1.4. Took 3 tries for BartPE/ 1 for DLS ecampos – 02/26/07
I finally installed Bart PE on my Verbatim Store’n Go 1GB flash drive. Started all the process on my desktop with a micro 512 SD card in an adapter. Neither the desktop or my Notebook Compaq n6230 would boot to the UFD (both have USB boot enabled in the BIOS). Next, I took the 1 GB stick and went thru the described process step by step . This time the stick attempted to load the RamImage (on the the laptop only) but generated the error: “cannot load c:\windows\system32\ntoskrnl.exe”. Went back to research the error, and slipstreamed the win XP sp2 into the installation as suggested (it took about 1 hr). Then I pointed BartPe to these slipstreamed source files. Booted up the systems and again only my laptop recognized the UFD, although it took about 5 minutes to load the ramimage. After getting to the BartPE desktop, no network adapters were detected (Broadcom NetXtreme), so network was unavailable. I also tried the DSL option. It took about 20 minutes to download, format the stick, install the image and to boot to Linux. Again no network support for me. I’ll keep both versions handy just in case. Thanks for all the advise.

Reply 1.4.1. Did you include the Broadcom NIC driver? r_widell – 02/27/07
If you go the the Table of Contents under the Help menu, you’ll find a section on adding storage and network drivers. I haven’t found anything (yet) that I can’t talk to after installing the appropriate driver. BartPE, like WinPE, is just a minimal subset of WinXP (or W2k3). You have to install the drivers during the build process for the hardware you’ll be running PE on.

Reply 1.4.1.1. Still no network support ecampos – 03/01/07
I did read the drivers section, after your suggestion, in the TOC and placed the NIC drivers in the specified folder. Rrbuilt the image, but my network adapter is not listed. I know that this particular NIC is a pain to configure. It took me several tries finally to build a succesful Ghost network boot disk. I’ll try another driver. You know any other step I may be missing? Thank you for your input.

Reply 1.4.1.1.1. Re: Still no network support r_widell – 03/02/07
I may not understand the issue. Are you saying that PENETCFG can’t find the NIC? If that’s the case, try searching the posts at the BartPE forum: http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showforum=30 or post your own query there. I’ve never posted there ’cause I’ve always found the answers to my questions are already there. Alternatively, you can check out what the folks at http://www.ubcd4win.com/ are doing. The “Ultimate BootCD for Windows” is based on BartPE, so it’s useful to check both places. Warning- UBCD4Win tries too hard to make things “idiot proof”. The result is that something always needs a little tweaking to make everything work. Be sure to read the “News” section on the web site to find pointers to the tweaks that need to be applied to the current release. Sorry I can’t be more help. ron

Reply 1.4.1.1.1.1. UBCD4Win has very good network support kennyschachat@… – 08/13/07
I’ve had much better luck with Universal Boot CD 4 Windows than with Bart PE. I haven’t tried it with a USB drive but the CD version has been very reliable for me and the network support is very good.

Reply 1.6. USB OS ijross74@… – 03/16/07
I have test XP and Slax and the linux OS is much smoother!! I used the ‘KillBill’ Edition that has Win built in and this allows Win32 exe’s to run on Linux. I still have to test this.

Reply 1.6.1. Slax rules A_Selby – 03/17/07
All the Slaxes are great. You can build pretty much any Slax you want and it couldn’t be any easier to do. The end result is superior to anything you can achieve with Bart PE, in my opinion.

Reply 1.6.1.1. SLAX & Networked Shares or CD Burning? holmescd@… – 03/17/07
Does SLAX support access to network shares from a bootable UFD? How about CD burning when booted from a UFD? I built a Knoppix bootable UFD and it works great, allowing access to network shares. However, I still have a few Windows applications I want to run occasionally when using it, so am considering generating a BartPE UFD during the summer break. However, if SLAX’s BillKiller allows Win apps to run AND also allows either access to network shares or CD burning I’ll be quite happy using that instead. The Knopix UFD doesn’t allow CD burning because it thinks the UFD is a CD drive occasionally; I also can’t save configurations for (I guess) the same reason. My thanks to everyone who has contributed to this long discussion.

Reply 1.6.1.1.1. Depends on what modules you install A_Selby – 03/19/07
KillBill edition has all the things you’ll need to do what you describe, but you can make sure by building your own Slax distro. Just get the base Slax, the MySlax Creator, and all the modules you desire. Visit http://www.slax.org to get Slax and modules MySlax was available on bonsonno.org until it was recently hosed by an attack, so you’ll have to get it via t0rr3nt. There’s a great tutorial on http://www.pendrivelinux.com that will tell you everything you need to know to make a usb bootable Slax to your own design and specification.

Reply 1.7. Installin XP on USB flash stick k_granit@… – 06/02/07
From what I have researched recently, is IS NOT possible to make a XP system boot from a USB stick. I’ve tried BartPE etc. which works but I want to boot my own XP not some limited version for repairs. I think there is a possibility to do so in following way: 1. Install a virtual computer on your system 2. On this virtual machine, possibly running on RAM disk, install XP and whatever product you need, like drivers and software, just beware of the size. 3. create an image of the RAM disk – image of the virtual partition 4. boot this image from usb stick similarly as BartPE does, xp then runs from ram This is a theory however, it should avoid the 0x7b well known problem when rebooting the install from the usb.

Reply 1.8. great article…there’s also PuppyLinux for USB drives… radicalspud – 08/13/07
first off, thanks for such a useful article. i’ve been using UFD-based Linux installs (PuppyOS specifically) for some Windows diagnostic work, but the potential problems with Linux and NTFS partitions have made me wary of using this method for really crucial rescues. i’m glad to have the option for a Windows-based one. also, it’s nice to have a better understanding of the different BIOS scenarios for getting USB drives to boot. i have encountered a number of BIOS configurations that *seem* to support booting from Flash drives, but aren’t very easy to configure to actually *do* it. in particular, i didn’t realize that some BIOSes will only show it as an option if it’s already plugged in at startup. =) sweet. i’ve used Bart’sPE to make some custom boot CDs. it’s a really fantastic program and can be customized pretty easily if you spend some time with the documentation and the configuration files. the main obstacle is finding applications that allow read-only functionality. http://www.portableapps.com is a good place to start. secondly, while i’ve used Knoppix and PuppyLinux live-CDs for accessing NTFS partitions, they can be really slow to boot on some machines, or not an option if the optical drive is dead. i wanted to recommend PuppyLinux (www.puppyos.com) as a compact but very powerful Linux option for UFDs. you can use an image that’s only 80MB and has most of the programs available on a live-CD (Firefox, GAIM, GIMP, more) as well as NTFS read/write access. the DE is a little weird to get used to (i don’t think it’s Gnome or KDE, but it’s similar to Knoppix), but aside from that it’s really small and really useful. it may be that Damn Small Linux has the same basic feature set with the same image size, i’ve not used it and i can’t be certain. but i know one of the primary motivations for the creator of Puppy was to have as many apps and as much flexibility as possible in the smallest amount of space, something he apparently wasn’t finding with other Linux distros. good luck with the bootable Vista!

Reply 1.9. “If you have a good quality UFD that’s at least 512 KB …” Lamini – 12/31/07
He needs to edit that error… I spent hours on end trying to make custom UFD for XP, no luck, using instructions all over the net since last year. I just bring along my external USB DVD drive. Some things not mentioned are you need at least 512MB sticks, and I keep hearing it has to be less than 2Gb in size. Thats probably why mine did not work, my smallest sticks were 4gb. can anyone verify that 4gb+ UFDs wont work?

Reply 1.10. Whats with the WinServer 2003 files Head-Tech – 12/31/07
Why were the Windows Server 2003 files copied. I placed them in the folder specified and ran BartPE and they were not used. I checked the resultant build and the files had the original Win XP version numbers. Anybody have an idea?

Reply 2. Boot device locks to 1st PC it is used on grewcockd@… – 02/19/07
Hi, I have tried creating Bart bootable flash drives on a few occasions, it has always been OK except for one issue: When XP boots a HDD, (which is what XP considers a flash drive to be!) It changes 8 files which lock the OS to the Hardware in use. If you then try and use the flash drive on a different set of hardware, XP crashes because the hardware has changed. So, does this proceedure get round this? What really needs to happen is to fool XP, or PE, into thinking that the flash drive is a CD, then no files are written to or changed on the boot device, since PE uses a RAM disk for all write functions, this should not cause any other problems!

Reply 2.1. It worked for me clawton@… – 02/19/07
I have done this and used my USB drive on several computers.

Reply 2.2. What are the 8 files? A_Selby – 02/20/07
I’ve had no trouble making Bart PE bootable flash drives before… though I haven’t tried this method yet. I remember moving HDDs with Win2K on them between machines used to cause a BSOD on boot IF you used non-standard HDD drivers that wrote the mainboard serial to the registry. The solution was move the HDD back to the original system, change to generic drivers and then you were free to move your HDD from system to system. I wonder is your problem anything like that?

Reply 2.3. Tried again, with the same result (BSOD 7B) grewcockd@… – 02/23/07
I have tried creating a PE Flash drive, and it creates just fine, and loads Bart to a PC via the USB port, but if you then try and boot a PC with a different configuration it gives a BSOD 7B. Boot it on the original HW and all is OK. This is what XP is supposed to do, to prevent it being used on different HW from that it was built on! MS KB article 314082 refers, but it only gives help for booting from IDE or SCSI drives. How can you ‘kid’ PE that the USB Flash drive is a CD rather than a HDD???

Reply 2.3.1. I don’t get this problem A_Selby – 02/25/07
No BSODs for me. Are you sure you’re not using proprietary drivers for any of your hardware? Has anyone got any ideas as to what else might be causing grewcockd’s problem?

Reply 2.3.1.1. How I created the USB_PE Flash grewcockd@… – 02/26/07
I used PE2USB and a Bart CD (which works fine on all PC’s I have tried it on). The PE2USB ‘Make’ works without errors, as does the first boot, but if I then take the Flash drive to a different type of PC I get the BSOD 7B. Put it back to the original type of PC and all OK. To Me it looks like the standard XP problem of trying to use a HDD on different Hardware??

Reply 2.3.1.1.1. if that’s the problem, use generic drivers A_Selby – 02/26/07
If you think it may be to do with the HDD drivers storing the mobo serial in the registry, use Standard IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers (the microsoft ones), instead of specific ones. Just a stab in the dark… Could be that, or something like it, although I can’t see why PE2USB would be doing something like that.

Reply 2.3.1.1.1.1. Normal cause of BSOD 7B grewcockd@… – 02/26/07
No! The ‘normal’ cause of BSOD 7B is HDD drivers at boot time, that is for a HDD boot, not a USB boot. So is it the USB drivers that are causing the problem? PE boots fine from an IDE CDROM, so I think it is either: 1) USB driver problem at boot. or 2) The Flash drive is locked to the 1st set of hardware it is booted to. I would love to solve this, as it has happened every time I have tried to create an XP/PE bootable flash drive, no matter how it is ceated.

Maximum Level Reached

2.3.1.1.1.1.1. Doubt it’s the USB driver A_Selby – 02/27/07
USB drivers are standard, post Win98. If you are building your portable WinXP from your existing in-situ installation, it is still possible that it is writing mobo info to the HDD drivers – not necessarily to boot from, of course, but to use to run a HDD once WinXP has booted off the UFD. However, I assume you’ve already checked this out? Anyone have any ideas as to what else it could be?

Reply 4. PE2USB GUI pbg51 – 02/19/07
There is an application out there called PeToUSB.exe and can be searched as PeToUSB_3.0.0.7.zip. The big advantage to this over pe2usb -f e: is you can assign the drive letter X to the usb device (it’s default) and it will partition, format and put the files onto the USB device for you. Also one limit on using BartPE is that it is built on fat16 and has a 2 gig limit. You can work around this by partitioning to say 512 then use the rest for data if needed. I have this running on a 40 gig USB HD drive doing this and use the rest for user data recovery and some stand alone apps.

Reply 5. Followed this. It Works madcow9597 – 02/19/07
It works well. Ive been booting My Bart PE Disk off a UFD for a month now using this exact method. Good Job on the Doc, I could of used it a month ago. Any how that’s life.

Reply 6. Finally!!!! jdkeith@… – 02/19/07
This is great. I have been putting this off for a very long time since it was so difficult to read through the miles of steps that others have posted elsewhere! Additionally it’s GREAT to see at least one piece of valuable content so far for 2007. I really appreciate this!!!

Reply 7. Windows CD DBAdmin – 02/19/07
How many people actually have a Windows CD? New computers have not come with a Windows CD since the late 1990’s. I’m waiting for a utility that will take the necessary files from an existing installation of Windows and put them on a USB device.

Reply 7.1. Ditto jmbiii@… – 02/19/07
I too, would like to see this.

Reply 7.2. Try the HP Mass formatter tool dsewell2@… – 02/20/07
Download the HP mass formatter tool. It can make a boot partition on any USB drive using FAT 32 or NTFS.

Reply 7.2.1. HP Mass Formatter Lost Cause? – 02/20/07
I Googled “HP Mass Formatter” and found zilch. Where can I find the tool?

Reply 7.2.1.2. Wrong Title dsewell2@… – 02/20/07
Sorry, it is more properly call the HP USB disk storage tool. Here is a link to a German web site that post it. http://www.pctipp.ch/downloads/dl/32594.asp I believe that I got my download off Tech Republic.

Reply 7.3. Here is a tool Endoscopy – 02/26/07
WinFuture XP-Iso-Builder is a tool for creating bootable CD that are updated and configured the way you want. It has a feature of creating a standard CD from the custom CD that ship with the systems or from the directory on the drive. It might be limited to the hardware it came with, I’m not sure. http://winfuture.de/xpisobuilder3_en

Reply 7.4. Use the Source–>Search Menu r_widell – 02/27/07
If the Windows CD didn’t come with the system but a recovery CD did, then the install files are already on the HD (somewhere). PEBuilder can find them for you if use the Source–>Search Menu. But it may take awhile. (it may also be that you have to assign a drive letter to the partition where those files are) Also, if it’s an old machine (pre-SP1) they won’t help you much. The source has to be SP1 or newer to build BartPE.

Reply 7.5. delete this one tnt4748@… – 05/24/07
delete this comment, its a lag comment

Reply 7.6. People tnt4748@… – 05/24/07
The people who are willing to use their hours and that can actually understand this article will most likely have their own Windows CD. If you work with computers alot, it becomes a valueble tool. And if you make/manage your own pc, you’ll HAVE to have a copy. Like going into war without a weapon. Once a serious problem pops up. Also MSNDC alliance offers XP for $15 a copy to students at most colleges, so if you have a kid in IT courses, ask him/her to talk to their IT instructor about it.

Reply 8. Great! Jorge Valdes – 02/19/07
Hi every one: I think this article is very useful and will allow me to have a more managable recovery unit. Thank you Greg for taking the time to share it with us.

Reply 9. How about Vista? FXEF – 02/19/07
This is the best article on booting XP from a flash drive I’ve seen, but what about booting Vista from a flash drive.

Reply 9.1. Vista on a USB flash drive Greg Shultz – 02/20/07
I haven’t yet attempted to figure out how to get Vista to boot from a USB flash drive. When I do, I’ll write an article on how it is done.

Reply 10. Glad to hear… Greg Shultz – 02/20/07
…that so many of you have gotten this technique to work! If you had success, can you post the brand name and size of UFD you used and the type and version of the BIOS on your computer?

Reply 10.1. Got it to Work sparker@… – 02/23/07
I used to use a Win98 boot on my UFD, but since I couldn’t see our NTFS drives, I jumpped on this. I use a Simpletech 1GB UFD and we have all Dell Optiplex and Latitude laptops. It’s a slow boot process, but it does work. I’ve used PEbuilder fo a couple of years for bootable diag disks, but this can be a time saver.

Reply 12. why create SRSP1? chinhan2k5@… – 02/26/07
and any one talk me why just simple create a dir with name srsp1, are there any logic relative here.

Reply 13. Will not boot wildbear63 – 02/27/07
When I am done I have 4 files — BartPE.iso, ntdetect.com, ntldr, and winnt.sif on the USB device. It then will not boot. I have tried this 3 times following the instructions exactly as the article says and I am getting the same results. SO — what am I missing here?

Reply 13.1. Re: Not Booting tdime@… – 06/05/07
I am having the same issue. I have read that the USB drives are a hit or miss. Some brands will work and some won’t. Let me know if you hear otherwise.

Reply 13.2. BartPE.iso will not boot? aerify7351@… – 01/03/08
Hi I have exactly the same problem that BartPE creates an .iso file, and 3 other WinXP loader files. But I could not boot from it. Were you able to fix this problem? Thanks in advance. Samir Desai aerify7351@mypacks.net

Reply 14. Only Extract What You Need s31064 – 03/02/07
It’s not necessary to expand all of SP1. Simply open it with WinZip or WinRAR, select the two files, extract them to your SRSP1 (or wherever) and expand ramdisk.sys. Of course, if you have a server already running 2K3SP1, just copy the files from there…

Reply 15. RE: Illustrated walk-through: Creating a bootable USB flash drive for Windows XP uncleruss11 – 07/20/07
Where is fancy bread in the heart or in the head?

Reply 16. Problem installing pugin zultekmilennia@… – 11/05/07
I have trouble installing the Mcaffee virus scanner. It kept telling me that it can’t find scan.exe when I tried enabling it on the plugins screen. I followed the instruction and it didn’t tell me anything about this. Any extra info I should know?

Reply 18. RE: Illustrated walk-through: Creating a bootable USB flash drive for Windows XP rsa_y2j@… – 01/15/08
So is there any way by which I can format my windows XP using flash drive??? I’m in desperate need plz tell me as soo as possible at rsa_y2j@yahoo.co.in Thanx

However, while you can put it on every machine, you can’t make that fool sitting at the keyboard USE the thing before publishing a document….
Wonder when that plugin will come out

]]>Comment on Improve Windows XP Pro’s NTFS performance by disabling the Accessed timestamp by alhttp://alsplace.info/?p=120&cpage=1#comment-6
Thu, 13 Dec 2007 12:54:13 +0000http://alsplace.aldenbaker.com/alsplace/tech-hints/120/improve-windows-xp-pro%e2%80%99s-ntfs-performance-by-disabling-the-accessed-timestamp/#comment-6XP Home also
It looks like you can do this in XP home version also.

this also works in vista

thanks
thanks very much ,but I didn’t understand the syntax,of
the command , it is different from registry commands.

It isn’t a registry command per se, the syntax is for fsutil only. You can find the Microsoft documentation here: Fsutil subcommands
Enjoy 🙂

It’s even easier with this script — save into notepad and save as .reg
——